Keywords

Southern American English back vowels, apparent-time vowel change, formant trajectory shape and position, vector-based vs. shape-based vowel analysis, Digital Archive of Southern Speech (DASS)

Abstract

We investigate low/back vowels /u, oʊ, ʊ, ɔ, ɑ/ in Southern American English (SAE).

Research on SAE has analyzed changes in position over generational time.

Most work on trajectories is limited to impressionistic coding (“loss of upgliding”) or reduces trajectories to summary statistics (vector length, rate of change).

We analyze both the position and the shape of back vowels’ formant trajectories in apparent time, using new data from the Digital Archive of Southern Speech (DASS).

Original Publication Citation

Joseph A. Stanley & Margaret E. L. Renwick. “Back vowel distinctions and dynamics in Southern US English.” The 94th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. New Orleans, LA. January 2–5, 2020.